Vice President of the Republic of Türkiye Finance Office Necip Fazıl Kaymak addressing the event.
Doha: Qatar and Turkey enjoy deep-rooted ties. The cooperation between the two countries is utmost importance as Qatar is Turkey’s strategic partner in several fields including financial technology. There is huge potential for cooperation in the financial technology (fintech) sector, said a senior Turkish official during an event, yesterday.
Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Finance Office and Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) organised a webinar entitled ‘Fintech and Digital Participation Banking: Turkish Solutions and Opportunities in Qatar’. It shed light on the dynamic ecosystems of Turkey and Qatar with opportunities to collaborate, focusing on Turkish fintech solutions and took a closer look at their innovative business models for the financial world.
Necip Fazıl Kaymak, Vice President of the Republic of Türkiye Finance Office delivered the opening speech which highlighted the importance of fintech in parallel with continuous development in technology. He said, “Fintech as a customer friendly approach which brings different perspectives to the world of finance while improving the way of doing business. The consequences of the pandemic revealed the importance of digital companies, competence and infrastructure which also increased the interest in fintech globally.”
Underlining the importance to bilateral and multilateral cooperation in order to reflect the potential of Turkey to global ecosystem, he said, “Our cooperation with Qatar has utmost important as Qatar is our strategic partner in many fields including fintech. The memorandum of understanding that the Finance Office signed with QFC in 2019 is one of the indicators of this cooperation which also has a vision to add value to the global ecosystem together.”
“I hope that this event will contribute to deepen existing cooperation in fintech between the two countries. In this event 20 Turkish fintech companies in financing, crowdfunding, Islamic fintech, open banking, Regtech, payment, e-commerce, investment and Insurtech categories will present their innovative solutions which will be beneficial for both sides,” he
added.
“Since the day the Finance Office was established in 2018, we accomplished great deal of activities through close cooperation and exchange of views. We have a wide network of public institutions, private sector representative and international stakeholders,” he added.
Citing the recent published state of fintech ecosystem in Turkiye report, he noted “We have increased our annual fintech investment from $12m in 2016 to $64m in 2021. Considering the young and dynamic population, the geographic strategic location, supportive regulatory structure and steps taken in digitilisation journey, our country offers significant opportunities for the growth of the fintech ecosystem. Our historical cultural bonds with our surrounding countries as well as the European Union as our neighbour, Turkish fintech firms have a great potential doing business in that region.”
Henk Jan Hoogendoorn, Chief of Financial Sector Office at Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) discussed the opportunities within Qatar and the fintech ecosystem of the country. He said, “We have a very strong relationship with Turkey as a country and with Finance Office.”
Speaking about doing business in Qatar he said, “Qatar has enough natural gas for the next decades which makes Qatar a very strong, rich and prosperous country in the GCC. So, if Turkish companies in general but Turkish fintechs in specifically would like to do business in GCC or the Middle East, we are a safe central hub to do business not only in Qatar but also in the nearby markets. We would like to create a hub with Turkish companies as much as possible.”
Qatar has one of the world’s highest GDP per capita which is projected to grow by 4 percent in 2022 and 4.1 percent in 2025 according to IMF. It is strategic located at the crossroads between the eastern and western world and is home to one of the world’s best airlines connecting six continents with flights to over 150 destinations. Qatar Central Bank (QCB), Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) are the key stakeholders in Qatar’s Fintech strategy.
He noted, “We attract companies those who can do business and we give access to the market to those fintech companies who have great opportunities.”
“We have created the opportunities for fintech companies to settle easily in QFC and operate at low cost in starting to see what is possible in Qatar. Both Qatar and Turkey have a young and tech savvy population, people are eager to look at the future. Like Turkey we would like to transform Qatar into a leading global and financial hub. We would like to drive the economic development and to create jobs,” he added.
